1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains in general to electronic commerce and in particular to advertising and selling items on the Internet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic commerce on the Internet has become commonplace. There are many merchants offering items via web sites on the Internet, and there are an even greater number of customers who purchase the items. In many cases, the electronic commerce transactions involve physical items. For example, many customers purchase items such as books, compact disks (CDs) and DVDs via the Internet. Customers also purchase electronic items such as downloadable text, music, and access to web sites that provide news or entertainment stories.
Many merchants promote themselves and their offered items by running online advertising programs. The merchants create electronic ads, such as banner ads or small textual ads, and run these ads on their own or others' web sites. Google Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., for example, provides an ADWORDS program that lets merchants create ads and choose criteria that match the ads to potential customers. The ADWORDS program then runs the ads on web pages likely to be viewed by the customers. In addition, Google Inc. provides a corresponding ADSENSE program that lets web site publishers run ads from merchants on the publishers' sites.
While the advertising programs described above are successful, there are some drawbacks associated with them. One drawback is that the ads usually link to merchant web pages that are not specific to the ads. For example, an ad that offers tickets to a particular movie or concert might link to a general page about movies, and not to the specific page allowing the customer to purchase tickets for the advertised movie. As a result, the customer must then navigate from the general page to the specific page for the movie. This extra navigating is undesirable because it leads to customer attrition and reduced sales.
Another drawback is that the customers navigate away from the ad-bearing web page when they select the ad. The publishers who carry the ads often seek to keep the customers on the publishers' own web pages. Selecting an ad takes a customer away from the original web page and interrupts the customer's interaction with the publisher.
Moreover, customers who are interested in an advertised product are oftentimes reluctant to purchase items from smaller or relatively unknown merchants. These merchants lack the brand recognition and trust associated with larger, better known merchants. Therefore, the customers hesitate to engage in risky behavior, such as providing credit card numbers, shipping addresses, or other personally-identifiable information to the merchants, resulting in fewer purchases than would occur if this drawback were not present.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a way to overcome the drawbacks described above.